The glazing SKILL. I took ceramics for 3 years and let me tell you, those who can glaze well have a gift. It’s harder than it seems. It’s not a “what you see is what you get” process.
City of Light: An
Unofficial Illustrated Concordance of Marielda is a charity zine of
fanworks focusing on the Marielda arc of the Friends at the Table actual play
podcast. Our expected production schedule is over summer 2017, with the
preorder campaign and fulfillment happening in the late summer and fall. We
will be donating all profits to Avenues
for Homeless Youth, a Minnesota charity that provides emergency shelter,
short-term housing and supportive services for homeless youth in a safe and nurturing
environment. The zine will be approximately 40 pages, 8x10 inches, full-color,
and perfect bound.
How do I contribute?
The types of art you may submit are full-page illustrations
and written works of 2000 words or less.
Because this is a relatively short book, depending on the
number of applications this will be a curated zine. Depending on the types of
works accepted, the number of artists will vary. Each contributor will have a
single work featured in the zine.
To apply, we’ll need your name, email, type of work you’d
like to submit, links to your work, and at least two ideas for what you’d want
to contribute. Because Marielda and Seasons of Hieron cross over in content,
your ideas can refer to events in Seasons of Hieron arcs, but we would prefer
that they focus on the Marielda arc. You must be 18 years old or older to
apply. Please review the terms
of submission before applying. You can apply here:
goo.gl/Sps7uL
If you have additional questions after reviewing the form,
please email marieldazine@gmail.com.
I’ve had a bee in my bonnet since this incident the other day, and I figure it’s probably time to get it out of my system.
Darkfic is not a new phenomenon. It’s as old as the hills. For as long as there have been fic writers, there have been fic writers using the medium to explore themes that are taboo in mainstream fiction. Torture and gore, death and destruction, rape and sexual abuse. Every author has their own motives and inspirations for the content they produce, and there’s no ‘average’ darkfic writer. But what I can tell you - anecdotally, from a full decade’s worth of experience drifting in and out of various darkfic communities - is that when you involve yourself with these authors, you start meeting survivors. Lots of survivors. In what I think it’s fair to call a statistically significant concentration.
For some, their survivor status is incidental to their controversial interests; for others of us, past trauma and mental illness are intrinsically tied to what we read and write. Darkfic can be a lifeline, a validation, a liberation, a profound and unbeatably intense catharsis for the shit we’ve got stored in our heads. Darkfic enclaves within fandom are places where we can air our darkest and most desperate fears and fantasies in a safe, supportive environment, in the company of others who remind us that we are not broken or defective just for wanting the things we want.
And here’s the thing: literally no one in these communities wants to force outsiders to join us. We recognise that our content is stuff that the majority of people don’t want to see, and we do our best to protect the rest of fandom from involuntary exposure by using appropriate trigger warnings. We don’t want to hurt anyone, we don’t want to ruin anyone’s innocence - we just want to be left alone to do our thing. But tumblr callout culture has taught people that “speaking out” against things they don’t like is cool and brave and socially progressive. It has created an environment where virtually the automatic response to distress, discomfort or personal offense is to look for a perpetrator, a culpable oppressive villain to whom the offended party can deliver a vicious “smackdown” while their friends look on and cheer.
I’m not going to argue just now about whether that’s ever an acceptable way to treat people. Regardless of anyone’s personal feelings on callout culture as a whole, there’s an intersection between darkfic and trauma survivors that you guys all need to understand before you go targeting darkfic authors as convenient representatives of everything you think is wrong with the world. So let me lay this out as simply and clearly as I can:
When you oppose darkfic because it “harms survivors”, you are talking directly over large crowds of survivors who will tell you they find darkfic to be a validating, healing experience.
When you claim that darkfic is self-destructive and unhealthy, you are privileging your personal beliefs over the lived experience of other people.
When you accuse darkfic authors of glorifying and supporting real-life abuse, you accuse survivors of glorifying and supporting their own abusers.
When you blame darkfic for supporting rape culture, you are making victims responsible for the actions of their oppressors.
When you set conditions around the creation and enjoyment of darkfic - aka “it’s only okay if you’re a survivor” - you create a culture of coercive disclosure, where survivors are expected to trade their right to privacy for the right to live free of harassment.
When you criticise darkfic authors for using survivor status as an “excuse”, you are locking us out of our own communities and denying our past traumas for the sake of a political argument.
If you are anti-darkfic, you are anti-survivor. I’m sick and tired of watching vulnerable members of my community get harassed and bullied by people who claim to be acting in the interests of survivors. I’m sick of being told that survivors like me aren’t survivors at all, that our very existence is toxic and harmful, that we have no right to speak and be heard on an issue that affects us so intimately.
Anti-darkfic fans, you need to pull back. You need to realise that your comfort and safety, while important, are not more important than the comfort and safety of other people. You need to understand that it is your responsibility to learn how to peacefully coexist alongside people who experience the world differently from you, even if their experiences make you unhappy or uncomfortable. You have no right to ask us to stop existing so that you can feel at ease. You have no right to demand that we prioritise the needs of some survivors over others. You don’t own fandom, and you have no right to dictate who does or doesn’t get to participate.
You are not brave heroes speaking out against the spread of moral degeneracy in fandom. You are bullies, deliberately and systematically targeting trauma survivors with your abusive tactics. It really is that simple. And it needs to stop.
Okay, I want to say this just once and make my position as crystal clear as I can:
There. Are. No. Exceptions.
Here’s the thing: I don’t think I’ve ever met a human being who didn’t believe, deep in their gut, that their moral perception was special and unique. Anger and disgust are extremely compelling emotions. When you’re in the throes of them, it’s easy and natural to convince yourself that your desire for retribution is justified. Someone made you feel this way, and they shouldn’t have been allowed to, and it’s only fair for you to be allowed to pay them back in whatever way feels right to you. It’s neverokay to abuse or harass other people, of course you believe that, but this one fic writer is doing something really and truly disgusting and they need to be punished –
You’re allowed to feel whatever you feel. Hell, even if you weren’tallowed, it’s not like anyone could stop you. But the fact that you have emotions doesn’t give you license to mistreat other people. If something is wrong then it’s wrong, no matter how badly you want to do it to one person in particular.
If you accept that censorship is wrong, then censorship has to be wrong no matter who it’s happening to. If you accept that bullying is wrong, then bullying has to be wrong even when you really, really don’t like the victim. If you accept that people are allowed to write whatever goddamn fanfic they want, you can’t tack on a clause that says “unless they’re writing this one thing that I, personally, believe should not be written in which case the angry mobs have my blessing to go to town”. What kind of position is that? How are you going to ask the entire rest of fandom to accept your specific personal boundaries as an objective moral yardstick?
So to the people reblogging this all “I agree with this except for when it’s something genuinely bad being written”, please reconsider. If you agree with me that purity campaigners are hurting vulnerable people and creating a toxic fandom environment, but you still support their tactics under X or Y condition, then you are as much a part of the problem as they are.
OKAY. I REALLY, REALLY LOVE THIS POST for making it abundantly clear that it’s fucked up to give survivors a “pass” and “allow” them to write darkfic based on their status as survivors while holding that “well it’s fine for these people because of their past abuse BUT NO ONE ELSE IS ALLOWED.”
While I’ve talked about writing/reading darkfic in relation to my being an abuse survivor, I don’t at all believe that I’m part of some special club which by virtue of having experienced trauma has some kind of golden ticket that ~gives us permission to consume/create darkfic~
I talk about darkfic in relation to my past abuse because, unfortunately, I feel like there’s a better chance that people will listen to me and maybe even hear what I’m saying. I hate the implication that darkfic is “only okay for abuse survivors” and sometimes, while it may not be the OP’s intention, I feel like many posts talking about this issue overlook that implications or could be interpreted as having that message and I don’t get those vibes here and that’s really nice.
Honestly, I think we should all be more than a little suspicious
of people who claim to be okay with darkfic ‘only if it’s written by and for
survivors’.
Let’s entertain, just for a minute, the premise most antis base
their arguments on – that portrayals of rape and abuse in fiction are
inherently harmful and contribute to the normalisation of real abuse. I’ve
spoken before about why I think that premise is bullshit,
but let’s say it’s true. In what way is darkfic materially different when it’s
written by survivors than when it’s written by non-survivors? All these abusers
who are allegedly reading our rape fantasies and interpreting them as support
for their crimes, are they going to feel any different knowing that a
particular fantasy was produced by a survivor?
(And not to derail my own argument, but can I just interject at
this point that writing about ‘abusers’ and ‘survivors’ as two distinct,
dichotomous and easily identifiable groups is making me all kinds of
uncomfortable. I’m throwing a lot of nuance out the window because there’s no
other way to succinctly express my case, but human identities are so much more complicated than ‘that
person is a survivor’ and ‘that person is an abuser’ and I’m trusting you guys
to keep that in mind while you read.)
ANYWAY. If I believe darkfic is causing real-world harm, then I
know damn well that waving around a Confirmed Sexual Assault Victim certificate
is going to do fuck all to mitigate that harm. There are only a couple of reasons
I can think of to make allowances for survivors:
I don’t actually believe that people writing darkfic causes
actual demonstrable harm. I don’t like that people write it and I want them to
stop, but I know there will be no negative consequences if I allow some people
to keep writing it, so I’m happy to make exceptions for people I see as ‘worthy’
of my respect and compassion.
I believe what I’m saying about darkfic being harmful, but I
also recognise that my methods of expressing that opinion are cruel and
inappropriate. I don’t want to inflict my bullying behaviour on people I perceive
as legitimately vulnerable, or whose further suffering might undermine my
self-image as a compassionate activist.
If you know any other reasons for making the ‘okay to cope’
distinction, then come at me. I’m all ears. But I think the people making those
exceptions are revealing something significant about their underlying beliefs
and motives. Why would they need to make ‘compassionate’ exceptions if they
weren’t aware on some level that the way they’re behaving is wrong?
